Data
UK carbon footprint per resident, average (Defra)
The UK's consumption-based greenhouse gas footprint divided by its population, as published by Defra, in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year. It counts emissions anywhere in the world from producing what is used in the UK, by households, government and investment, plus households' own emissions from heating and driving; it is an average over everyone in the UK, not a measure of any one person's choices. Defra revises earlier years in every annual release, and says the estimates for 1990 to 1996 are more uncertain. UK only.
Latest value
10.2t CO₂e/person/yr
United Kingdom: average per resident, 2023. Version UK carbon footprint 1990 to 2023, published 30 June 2026.
UK carbon footprint per resident, average (Defra) (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year)
Show as a table
| Period | Value (t CO₂e/person/yr) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 16.1 | final |
| 1991 | 16.2 | final |
| 1992 | 15.4 | final |
| 1993 | 15.0 | final |
| 1994 | 14.7 | final |
| 1995 | 14.0 | final |
| 1996 | 14.2 | final |
| 1997 | 14.4 | final |
| 1998 | 15.1 | final |
| 1999 | 14.9 | final |
| 2000 | 14.8 | final |
| 2001 | 14.6 | final |
| 2002 | 15.3 | final |
| 2003 | 15.4 | final |
| 2004 | 16.1 | final |
| 2005 | 15.8 | final |
| 2006 | 15.8 | final |
| 2007 | 16.0 | final |
| 2008 | 14.8 | final |
| 2009 | 13.2 | final |
| 2010 | 13.4 | final |
| 2011 | 13.0 | final |
| 2012 | 13.1 | final |
| 2013 | 12.9 | final |
| 2014 | 12.6 | final |
| 2015 | 12.1 | final |
| 2016 | 11.6 | final |
| 2017 | 10.8 | final |
| 2018 | 11.3 | final |
| 2019 | 11.0 | final |
| 2020 | 9.5 | final |
| 2021 | 10.2 | final |
| 2022 | 10.7 | final |
| 2023 | 10.2 | final |
Notes on individual values
- Defra cover sheet: There is a higher degree of uncertainty around the estimates for 1990 to 1996, so they should be interpreted with caution.
Where it comes from
- Producer
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra); data produced by the University of Leeds · UK and England's carbon footprint to 2023
- Version
- UK carbon footprint 1990 to 2023, published 30 June 2026
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 98,019 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 a2fa54f975caa9fdb7b2092273683f9ff7b395f2bdc571c8489be79532c2085bETag "6a3ce5c9-17ee3" · Last-Modified Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:24:41 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2026). UK and England's carbon footprint to 2023: Carbon footprint for the UK dataset, 1990 to 2023 (UK carbon footprint 1990 to 2023, published 30 June 2026). GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uks-carbon-footprint
- Producer
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra); data produced by the University of Leeds · UK and England's carbon footprint to 2023
- Version
- UK carbon footprint 1990 to 2023, published 30 June 2026
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 1,032,209 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 1bd24a5079114b85d13274f22eead875ac4ef23d974d63118601bde6793dc0f5ETag "6a3ce627-fc011" · Last-Modified Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:26:15 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2026). UK and England's carbon footprint to 2023: Carbon footprint for the UK dataset, 1990 to 2023 (UK carbon footprint 1990 to 2023, published 30 June 2026). GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uks-carbon-footprint
What was done to it
Read 'Carbon footprint for the UK dataset, 1990 to 2023' (OpenDocument spreadsheet, sha256 a2fa54f975ca…, retrieved 2026-10-05; the cover sheet says the tables were published on 30 June 2026 and are licensed under the Open Government Licence 3.0). Cells were read from the file's content.xml as written.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/footprints/defra_uk.py · code sha256 d05b1873094a65b4… · inputs a2fa54f975ca… 1bd24a507911…
Selected the column 'Greenhouse gases (tCO2e per capita)' of sheet Summary_1990_to_2023, 1990–2023, as published (Defra's own per-person figure). No value was changed.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/footprints/defra_uk.py · code sha256 d05b1873094a65b4… · inputs a2fa54f975ca… 1bd24a507911…
Copied the cover sheet's sentence on 1990 to 1996 ('There is a higher degree of uncertainty around the estimates for 1990 to 1996, so they should be interpreted with caution.') as the note of each of those years.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/footprints/defra_uk.py · code sha256 d05b1873094a65b4… · inputs a2fa54f975ca… 1bd24a507911…
Global warming potentials: Defra's 'Consumption-based accounts for the UK, 1990 to 2023: Summary of methods' (University of Leeds; PDF, sha256 1bd24a507911…, retrieved 2026-10-05), section 1.4, page 6: 'Non-CO2 gasses are converted to CO2e using the Global Warming Potential values from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).' The quote was found in the text of that page before publishing; the scope records AR5 100-year values from it.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/footprints/defra_uk.py · code sha256 d05b1873094a65b4… · inputs a2fa54f975ca… 1bd24a507911…
What it covers
- Geography
- United Kingdom: average per resident
- Gases combined with
- AR5-GWP100
- Basis
- Consumption-based footprint: greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the world from producing the goods and services used in the UK, plus households' own emissions from heating fuels and private vehicles; emissions from producing UK exports are not counted. Estimated by the University of Leeds with a multi-regional input-output model. Flights have no separate figure; they are inside transport.
- Unit
- tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year (t CO₂e/person/yr)